Can Generative Sound Help You Fall Asleep

I'm not a doctor or a sleep researcher. This is what I found when I looked, written down so you can check it.

What the review found

The review covered 38 studies of white noise and similar sounds used for sleep. Some found people slept better. Others found they slept worse. The authors judged the overall evidence to be very low quality, and said this is at odds with how widely sleep noise is used. They also warned that constant noise might harm sleep or hearing, and asked for better studies before anyone recommends it.

That is a more cautious picture than I expected.

What sound can plausibly do

Cover other sounds. A door in the corridor, a car outside, a neighbour's television. In a quiet bedroom each of these stands out, and a low steady sound makes them less sharp. This is the same idea as in Silence Is Not Neutral, and it is the one use I'm comfortable describing.

What is probably the routine

Putting a sound on at night usually comes with other habits: lights down, phone away, the same time each evening. Those help by themselves. It is easy to give the sound the credit.

If you want to try it

• Keep it quiet. The review's warning about hearing is a reason to stay well below the volume you would use by day.
• Choose something steady, with no sudden events.
• If it doesn't help within a few nights, stop. There is no reason to push on.
• If you have ongoing trouble sleeping, see a doctor. An app is not a treatment.

About my own project

I built Ambient Sound Online for working. It makes slow, steady sound that never loops, which is the kind I would choose at night too, but I haven't tested it for sleep and I'm not going to claim anything. One practical note: on a phone the app keeps the screen awake while it plays, so turn the brightness right down or lay the phone face down.

Sources

• Riedy, Smith, Rocha and Basner, 2021: noise as a sleep aid, a systematic review